Dennis Hayzlett

painting (watercolor, fluid acrylic and ink on paper)

Upon graduating from the University of Colorado in 1966, I served six years on active duty as a Naval Aviator. After leaving the service, I spent the most of my working life in Higher Education Administration and earned a master’s degree in the field from the University of Northern Colorado in 1974. My areas of administrative experience include university budgets, human resources, payroll, benefits, software implementation and consulting.
Throughout these experiences, art, particularly drawing, has been a part of my life. As a young boy I was fascinated by airplanes and spent endless hours drawing them. Later in life I became interested in painting and particularly enjoyed the spontaneity and freshness of watercolors. I am largely self-taught but have attended painting workshops in the United States and Europe studying with Tony Couch, Frank Webb, Dale Laitinen, Alvaro Castagnet and others.
Locally, I am an exhibiting artist in the Treasure Valley Artists Association (TVAA), the Boise Open Studios Cooperative and a signature member of the Idaho Watercolor Society (IWS), where I am currently serving my second two-year term as President. I have had pieces juried into the Art Source gallery annual show in Boise. My watercolor paintings have been juried into the IWS Annual Exhibitions in 2010 (Honorable Mention), 2012, 2013 (Sponsors Silver Purchase Award), 2014 (Windsor Newton Painting Award), 2015 (Bill McCusker Memorial Award), 2016, 2017 and 2018 (Jack Richeson Award). I have served five years as the IWS delegate to the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies. My paintings have also been selected for inclusion in the 2014, 2016 and 2018 WFWS annual exhibitions where I now hold signature status.
Watercolor is a wonderfully flexible and expressive medium and I enjoy using strong color and contrasts. But, I am striving to develop the ability to move beyond mere representation to capture in color and form the feelings that an object or scene evokes in me. My work is still marked by the realism of my early drawings but I now seek to develop a more freely expressive style. I love to paint complicated, detailed works involving cityscapes, old machinery, ruins and occasionally, an airplane.